THE Kinetica Belfast Irish Miles Meet at Mary Peters Track on Saturday will have the European Permit after all, following behind the scenes negotiations.
Last week, it emerged that there had been an administrative error when applying for the permit as Athletics Ireland were to sign off on the application it hadn't been made aware of.
The European Permit was subsequently revoked, meaning Saturday's event would have resulted in much lower rankings points made available for the participants as a Category F UK Athletics Level 2 meet.
Organiser, Eamonn Christie had been in discussions all week in the hope to have the Permit reinstated and on Thursday afternoon he got the good news when Athletics Ireland and Athletics Northern Ireland put out a joint statement confirming that Saturday's bumper race meet will have the Category D points back on offer for those Olympic hopefuls.
The statement read: "Athletics Ireland and Athletics Northern Ireland have worked together behind the scenes to jointly support our athletes to facilitate the issue of a European Athletics Permit with Category D ranking points for the Belfast Irish Milers meeting at the Mary Peters Track this Saturday, 29th May.
"Our commitment to the athletes in both the North and South of Ireland, their health, safety and status has always been the central theme throughout the management of this matter, and we are grateful for the support of UK Athletics in working collaboratively with us in ensuring that this meet could proceed with a European Athletics Area Permit.
"We wish the athletes and officials a safe, enjoyable meet this weekend and look forward to some excellent performances."
Organiser Eamonn Christie
There is a number line-up making the trip to the Belfast venue with Irish athletes Mark English, Phil Healy, Paul Robinson, Andrew Coscoran, Cian McPhillips and John Fitzsimons all hoping to move a step closer to Olympic qualification with a strong showing in their respective events.
Also joining the field is Holly Archer, who will race in the women's 1500m. The GB athlete claimed silver at the recent European Indoor Championships in Poland and will arrive in Belfast aiming to run an Olympic qualifying time of 4:04:05.
A pacemaker has been signed up to ensure a fast race that will also involve Irish trio Amy O'Donoghue, Georgie Hartigan and Ellie Hartnett.
Last week, Ireland’s 4x200 reply team of Aoife Lynch, Kate Doherty, Sarah Quinn and Sophie Becker, who were second at the recent World Athletics Replays in Poland, were added to the Belfast entries while British 800m Olympic prospect Alexandra Bell is also set to compete.
With up to 500 spectators allowed to attend sporting events in the North, organisers will be hoping that at least a small crowd will be able to watch the meet, which gets underway at 1pm while East Down Athletics Club are streaming the event live on their YouTube page.
